Nicole Scott, Majority Staff Director

Scott, the Republican staff director for the House Agriculture Committee, is an Oklahoman through and through.

Her family has ranched there for five generations, and she grew up in Waurika, a town of 1,200 people just two counties away from Chairman Frank Lucas’s district. Scott’s grandfather, a Democrat, was a state legislator for 30 years.

After Scott received both a bachelor’s and a law degree from the University of Oklahoma, she came to Washington in 1995 as an aide to then-Rep. J.C. Watts, who had preached at her church. She went to work for Lucas in his personal office in 1999, handling agriculture issues.

In 2009, when Lucas became committee ranking member, Scott moved to the panel’s staff, and she took over as majority staff director when the Republicans assumed control after the 2010 election.

Scott, 44, now manages a staff of 27. She said that being the first Republican female staff director of the committee has not posed any particular problems, but notes there are other challenges. “Lucas is a consensus builder,” she said. “He wants to find a place for agriculture that people can rally around, and that’s a challenge in this Congress.”